The Ranai Forest almost seems to press in on all sides, but your next push through the underbrush surprises you by offering less resistance than you expected. You land in a patch of strawberries on the shores of a massive lake that stretches out before you. At first you feel a sense of vertigo as the mirror-surface of the water perfectly reflects the expansive sky, interrupted only by the inverted image of the white tower standing guardian on the opposite bank.
Long red banners, like trails of blood, weep from the windows set near the tower's height. A unexpected and crisp wind suddenly rushes down from above, sending concentric circles across the lake, revealing the true grey color of the water in the diminishing waves.
Past the tower you see a field of inky black flowers, dotted here and there with an anomalous vibrant pink. On this side of the field, set low into the ground—and therefore almost escaping your notice—squats a long row of stone rooms with large barred gates for roofs. Nearby, a man with skin as white as salt and hair black as oil struggles in the grasp of a pair of swordsmen. The swordsmen unceremoniously throw him into one of the squat jail cells, slamming the gate and locking it after him. The swordsmen dust off their gloves, shake hands, and walk away into the field of black.
Beyond the field, the settlement itself awaits. Unlike most, it is not a simple collection of independent structures, but rather an interlocking complex of homes, businesses, and public spaces, all built into, from, or adjoining the natural verdure. In the center of this elaborate web, one tree in particular—tall, thick, and ancient—displays the windows of a five-storey inn. From the fourth of these storeys extends a bridge of living wood, reaching out to the middle of a neighboring tree where a general store perches among the higher branches.
Long ago, in an effort to destroy their racial enemies, the Córeans enacted a powerful demonic contract to curse the black metal known as pirium. Many Seraphim, who unwittingly used the metal in their circlets and weapons, fell to the curse one by one, having their natural hunger replaced with an unnatural one. Thereafter, the fallen were called vampires—or "those of the pirium curse"—and they craved only the essence of the living.
Since that time, many have investigated any means whereby the curse could be lifted, but it seemed none could be found. Then, by chance, a solution presented itself in a surprisingly simple and readily accessible form: living wood. Upon discovering this, crude weapons were crafted from tree branches and used to stop the corrupted angels from their nightly blood feast. The word was spread abroad: a stake crafted from living wood could drain the curse from a vampire's heart, thereby giving the seraph a proper release.
This knowledge came as a relief to Kala, a seraph archmage who had been studying the curse for some time on account of having contracted it herself. Her tower resided in the Ranai Forest, where her weapon against the curse had been around her the whole time, had she but known it. Until that time, she had enchanted her tower to draw the effects of the curse away from her, into the very ground. Unhappily, this caused the water in the nearby lake to turn grey, and the normally pink flowers of the nearby field an inky black.
Once Kala discovered the secret curse-cancelling properties of living wood, however, she used her knowledge of Life and Nature magic to pioneer the magical art of wood-warping. Once successful, she grafted whole sections of living wood directly onto her body to stave off the effects of her affliction, and has lived in peace—free of the curse—ever since. In time, she perfected the art of wood-warping and applied it to the forest itself, bringing an ever-growing web of architecture into being around her tower.
While the field of inky black flowers and the Grey Lake remain as reminders of what had been, the residents of Kala Settlement know where their patron's true motives lie. Vampire-hunters come to the settlement to obtain weapons warped from living wood, and bring the cursed to Kala in return for a bounty. It falls to Kala, then, to see if she can rehabilitate her cursed kin as she did once herself.
If so, it may be the turning of the tide in the war against the Córeans.
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